Diffusion samples as a high-throughput screening method for alloy development

ABSTRACT

Diffusion couples of copper alloys are presented as screening tool for high-throughput alloy development. It allows estimating the precipitation hardening potential in multicomponent alloys of a vast number of compositions within one sample. The components were diffusion welded and annealed to form compositional gradients which were characterised through a grid of energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy measurements. After splitting the different sample parts underwent different tempering treatments. Thereafter micro hardness grids matching the spectroscopy data were recorded and displayed in contour plots as a function of alloy composition that instantly show composition areas with hardening potential. A critical assessment of the reliability of the method is provided and checked for cu-Al/mn-Sn-ti systems against literature data.

This paper is part of a Thematic Issue on Copper and its Alloys.

KEYWORDS:

• Metal
• alloys
• precipitation
• diffusion
• diffusion samples
• copper alloys
• alloy development
• high throughput

Acknowledgements

The members of the user’s committee (Agosi Allgemeine Gold- und Silberscheideanstalt AG, G.RAU GmbH & Co. KG, Nonnenmacher GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, Wieland-Werke AG, Indutherm Erwärmungsanlagen GmbH, Bruker-Spaleck GmbH) and the project partners from IWWT/Pforzheim University are acknowledged for the support of the work. The authors also want to thank their co-workers at fem research institute for their great work concerning sample preparation and performance of the analyses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank the Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Wohnungsbau Baden-Württemberg, Germany for financial support of this work under grant number 7-4332.62-FEM/39.